thelorienleaguefandomcom-20200216-history
Talk:Nova/@comment-25065826-20150130221822/@comment-25065826-20150131173003
He hits me right in the jaw. I stumble backwards, and I get a hand around my throat. My eyes begin watering, but I hope I blink them away. "Your room is this way." He says, dragging me down the corridor, turning left and finding a door. He pulls a key from his pocket, and shoves it in the keyhole. Cloner slams the door open, pulls me inside, and throws me into a corner. He lets go of me, and stomps from the room, throwing the key at me. "Do not use your power on me", he growls, and the door closes with a BANG. He leaves me terrified, and I still get the feeling that this is Cloner at his most hospitable. I’m never getting on his bad side. When I have my breath back, I look around my room from the corner. When I realise I can move, I walk over to the bed. Looks comfy enough. There’s a small drawer that comes out from under the bed, with clothes of varying sizes in it, and the room is quite spacious. The bedside table has a notebook and pen on it, and other random bits that may or may not be anywhere near useful. I mean, these are possibly the best people to get kidnapped by. How can I say that? I have a shower, and blood occasionally dribbles from my mouth. It stops after a stinging rinse. I change into an assortment of clothes – a boys cycling top, some baggy trousers, and, when I step outside the room and feel the temperature of the air, a wool-lined hoodie. I figure I may as well have a chat with... well, more like to, Emma. I take the notepad with me, and write down my room number, the turns and corridors to go past from my room to the canteen, medical ward and training centre, which I stumble across, too. I make sure to not disturb anyone – they’re all giving me funny looks. Then I realise why – I don’t have a scar yet. Even Cloner has one, but his is different and much more 'aggressive' than anyone else’s. Sure enough, the training facilities are pretty high-tech. Awful food here, but everything else is pretty damn nice. Apart from the people. There isn’t much but training and eating here, it’s almost as if we’re being bred and raised for fighting and war... I reach the medical area soon enough, and sit with Emma for a while. Some of the muscles in her face and neck spasm occasionally, but this time Emma’s very much unconscious. I chat to her anyway, making the mistake to touch her. I feel drowsy almost instantly, my energy is sapped, and pull away with regret. I feel quite stressed with my only reminder of my previous group on major medical drugs, I realise. I finish talking with thin air, sigh, and walk, downhearted, to the gym, with the aim to lose this burden on me. I start with the running machines. Now, it may seem weird, but it took me a while to figure out how to get the machine working. I've never really seen one before. These are in a row, and joined together, whilst the others are separately placed around the room. Eventually, a girl comes over and tells me that these machines only work if 3 or more people are on them. Apparently, these are race-orientated machines. Hoodie Guy comes over, and I’m relieved to race against someone I know. The girl gets on a machine too, and I feel slightly nervous – these people have had training, I can tell, but I feel up to a run anyway. I put the hoodie on the floor next to me, and the girl presses 'Start' on her machine. They all whirr to life, and the run starts out very manageably, less than a jog, but quickly speeds up. The machine’s on setting 9 in 2 minutes. Neither of my competitors show any signs of weakness, but I keep running. Setting 13. 16. I’m managing to keep up with the machine amazingly, but I guess there isn’t bright sunlight burning me here, and I’m not being chased by anyone intent on killing me. Then, the machines stop buzzing and slow. When they stop, we all start breathing heavily at the same moment. Bursting out laughing, I sit on the floor to get my breath back, and the girl starts talking. "How the Hell are you so good at running?" She gasps, smiling slightly. Her accent sounds a bit American. "Um… I don’t know," I say. She laughs again, but it’s a laugh filled with sadness, trying to be covered up with cheeriness. I know the laugh. "Well, I have an idea", she says. Again, it’s my accent, isn’t it? Damn it. After a bit of weight training, which I am definitely not so good at, and combat skills, which I prove useful with, with the same people, I begin to think I’ve got a friendship forming. With two people I’ve known for less than a day. Weird. Like most things here. I head off to eat a few minutes after Hoodie Guy does. I don’t want to lose a friendship by being too attached to the first person I meet who isn’t a sociopath. I get in the queue, tonight is apparently “Wraps and sandwiches”. Sounds fine to me. I get my baguette, and wander to sit down. Hoodie Guy walks over, sits a seat away, and pours himself a drink from the jug of water on the table. "Cheers, newbie!", he smiles, and raises his glass. I get my own, which is empty, and raise it, laughing. "Cheers!" After a few minutes, with my mouth full, I ask Hoodie "What’s your name?" He replies – "Oh, Jordan. Sorry, probably should have told you earlier." He smiles sheepishly. Yeah, my impression is backed up. Jordan seems to think he’s lower down on the social ladder. "I’m Niamh." I reply. The girl from the gym walks around, looking for her friends by the looks of it. She catches my eye, but looks at Jordan and smiles sadly. He notices. "She arrived around 10n days ago," he says. "I've been here around... 3 weeks?" The girl settles a few table away, and engages in conversation with a group of girls. Another thing I’ve noticed is that every single person here is a ‘mutant’. Probably been staring me in the face the entire time I've been here. Everyone has purple eyes, broadly on show to everyone. I’ve learned that having purple eyes isn’t a definite indicator of being a Nova victim, but I’m pretty sure no human in their right mind would decide to live in a group of people with superpowers. After tea, I settle in my room. There’s a TV I didn’t see before, which is on the wall, and when I scroll through the programmes, there’s nothing much to watch. I look on the 'Recordings' section, and sure enough, there’s a documentary about mutants. Was this the one Cloner meant when he caught me? I play it, and it turns out to be really interesting. It features skirmishes in a lot of places, including Africa. Me. It’s the time the police found us, and our car got burnt to a cinder, and Tom… When… When it’s finished, I decide to head off to sleep. The bed turns out to be comfy, and when I realise the time is 10 o’clock, I’m quite surprised. Definitely time to sleep. I have no idea when I’ll be awoken. * When I do wake up, it’s a loud voice coming through the speakers from the TV. "Everyone, UP!" Yeah, it’s Cloner. I think he’s the boss around here. "7:30 am, everyone. You have 10 minutes to get ready, 10 minutes from then to eat, and then we’re off to play CTF." I’m changed quickly, off to have breakfast. Jordan isn’t here, so I eat alone. When I’ve finished, he walks in and taps my shoulder. "Hey." He says. "Hey." I feel slightly scared of him, and although I hate to say it, I think it’s his skin. Pink ridged, gnarled. But I think that having known this guy for less than a day probably is a reasonable factor, too. "Jordan, what’s CTF?" I ask. "Oh, you’ll love it." Straight answer. "And what’s your mutation?" I ask. He flinches. "You mean power?" I feel instantly bad. I make a mental note. "You’ll find out soon enough." "Why does everyone have a scar on their neck of some sort?" I ask. Pestering more than I should, but I want answers. "You'll find that out soon enough, too, I expect." He says this sadly, like he pities me. "RIGHT, everyone listen up!" Cloner shouts as he enters the canteen. "We’re leaving in around 5 minutes to the forest. I’ve got some people to set CTF up." He points completely randomly at people around the hall. "You guys are on guard duty." I expect a groan, but nothing happens. Weird. Everyone would rather be involved, right? Unless the activity really is that bad… "Everyone in the minivans!" Cloner shouts 5 minutes later. He’s definitely more aggressive today. "What are we doing, Jordan?" I ask nervously, getting into a line to board a minivan. "Capture the Flag," he replies.